Before the novellas, there were the poems. Poems of Reality: The Experiences of Life came out in 2016. Ninety-four pages. No costume. I wanted the experience itself on the line — not the souvenir version we tell at dinner.
A poem can hold betrayal in twelve lines and still have room for the joke you tell so you do not cry in the bodega. That is why I started there. Some readers feel the pain immediately. Some recognize a sister, a father, an old street. Some are irritated that the poem will not comfort them. Good. Comfort that lies is just another secret.
The question underneath the collection is blunt. We have all loved and lost. Can we say we have learned and grown? If the answer is no, the poems will wait. They are not going anywhere. Neither is the life that made them.
Read the collection via the Amazon author page or on Goodreads.